THE
P RTAL
January 2018
Page 3
P ortal Comment
The Blogosphere
and the Ordinariate,
among other things
A look around by Will Burton
T
here are many questions that concern me. Why do 95% of car drivers in England ignore speed
limits, and why do a similar number drive on the right instead of the left when there is more than one
lane in each direction, even when the lanes to their left are devoid of traffic? I suppose the answer will be
made clear one day, if not in this world, then in the next. The really surprising thing is that there are not more
serious accidents on our roads, considering the generally low standard of driving.
Low standards are not, of course confined to our
roads. In the Blogosphere, attention has been drawn
to the low standards in the church. At Antique
Richborough, Mgr Edwin Barnes, referring to the
modern CofE, laments: “There is no joy in writing this.
I recall a church which could once claim to be stupor
mundi, a scholarly compassionate body which was
founded on the Apostles and the ancient Fathers and
was prepared to speak the truth to power. Ichabod, the
glory has departed. So why will anyone with integrity
still try to prop up this decaying corpse?”
At Father Ed’s Blog, Fr Ed Tomlinson expresses
a similar view; “Bottom line? If you worship in a
synodical church embrace the consequences of losing
synodical votes. Those votes have not been easy on
traditionalist Anglicans, and many sympathise, but
the implications cannot be dodged for ever.
but – failing to understand the lofty nature of their
responsibility – let themselves be corrupted by ambition
or vainglory. Then, when they are quietly sidelined, they
wrongly declare themselves martyrs of the system, of a
“Pope kept in the dark”, of the “old guard”…, rather than
reciting a ‘mea culpa’. Alongside these, there are others
who are still working there, to whom all the time in the
world is given to get back on the right track, in the hope
that they find in the Church’s patience an opportunity
for conversion and not for personal advantage.’
Oh my, we are in a sorry state! Thank God there
is good news. As this edition is for January, one is
mindful that it is the month when we celebrate the
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Now, this product
of twentieth century Anglo-Catholicism, deserves our
pride and praise.
Those giants in our land did their level best to secure
The situation will only get worse for traditionalists, unity between the CofE and the Catholic Church in
given that the modernist project is well underway England. That they were unable to do so was in no
and shows no sign of abating. So again, what are they way because of their lack of effort, Christian hope and
remaining for exactly, given that all credible Catholic prayer. But the truth is it did not happen.
claim is long gone?”
Well, not until the Ordinariate came along. So in
Fr Hunwicke, at his Mutual Enrichment, writes; “Fas this issue of T he P ortal there are articles on Christian
est doceri ab Anglicanis”. “Things are rarely so dire that Unity from various points of view - a Presbyterian
Minister, an Ordinariate Priest, as well as our regular
they can’t be made worse by an episcopal cover-up”.
columnists. Also, we have a report of a fascinating
At Ignatius, his Conclave, looking at the Catholic visit to a small town in Gloucestershire that is one
Church, Geoffrey Kirk carries this quotation, “‘Here of the nurseries of the Ecumenical movement in this
let me allude to another danger: those who betray country.
the trust put in them and profiteer from the Church’s
Who knows, maybe things are not as bad as I at first
motherhood. I am speaking of persons carefully selected
to give a greater vigour to the body and to the reform, thought?